1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates generally to office furniture. More specifically it relates to free-standing office furniture units designed for grouping of workers doing inter-related tasks, so to be nearby yet personally separated.
2. Prior Art:
It is well known that in a very large room holding many office workers, the modern trend is to cluster them into spaced apart groups instead of in rows of desks, for less monotony and other advantages such as improved mobility in efficient use of existing work space and more effective work flow in the use of available technical equipment. Some of these units provide air circulation and temperature individually controlled for each occupant. While the units have numerous pleasing features, there is one popular model thereof that is made with a specific number of individual work areas clustered around a climate-control unit that serves these surrounding areas, and which hereinafter in this paper shall be termed as a central "weather station" structure.
This unit is constructed as a rigid, single unitary structure so that its fixed number of work areas cannot be altered. This becomes objectionable to a company who after installing many units of a particular size, such as for example a five-work unit, and later wishes change to a three- or four-work area unit as well as some other designed room arrangement for offering flexibility in the improvement of carrying out daily business tasks. This situation is accordingly in need of an improvement.